One of the greatest joys of serving this church as an elder is the privilege we have to listen to everyone share their testimony. Each story is unique, but they all have that familiar pattern. If someone has grown up in a Christian home, there still comes that point where the faith of their parents becomes personal.
Often times, the stories begin outside the church and it is not until a friend invited them to church that they heard and responded to the gospel. We never tire of hearing the various ways that God has worked in your lives. We encourage you to tell your testimonies to one another.
We’ve heard a lot of testimonies, and I will say that there is a bit of a learning curve. Some need to be coached through their testimony with questions, others seem pretty familiar with the concept. The main idea that we are looking for is fairly basic.
Do you understand your need salvation? Do you understand that apart from Christ you are without hope? Everyone who professes Christ as their Lord ought to recognize their need for him, whether they grew up inside or outside of the church. Then we are also looking to hear how you came to trust in Christ for your salvation.
Paul shares his testimony with the Philippians in this morning’s passage. He speaks of his experience in Judaism apart from Jesus, then he explains how Jesus changed his view of everything.
We have the tendency to create standards for ourselves that serve to assuage our guilty conscience. Or we base our salvation upon whether or not we possess a particular set of virtues. Christ may be a helpful means to achieving the real goal of self-justification.
But a true conversion is a supernatural transformation that is accomplished by God through faith. In Christ we gain a new identity and belong to a new community for all eternity.
Pray & Read https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Php3.1-11 (Philippians 3:1-11).
I. The Loss of Tribal Identity (4-7)Last week, we talked about Paul making an abrupt shift in tone at the start of this chapter. He issues a stern warning about those who are corrupting the truth. He takes another unexpected turn in the fourth verse.
Paul had just given several characteristics of the community of saints. “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.”
Paul recognizes that the community does not eradicate the individual. We must treasure Christ personally and individually. So Paul begins to explain how that took place in his own life. It begins, therefore, with a discussion of the things that used to define his life. What were things that he valued? What gave him purpose and meaning?
Paul’s pedigree gave him great confidence in the flesh, more even than his opponents (4). Anyone who assumes the need to meet a certain standard according to the flesh, will find Paul is more than qualified. They cannot find fault with his background. He belonged to the elite class of Israelites. He took his religion more seriously than anyone else he knew.
For those estimating one’s worth by resume, Paul’s was one few others could compete with (5-6). He rattles off everything that he once held up to God as his justification. The first five characteristics reflect the tribes Paul belonged to, while the latter two characteristics reflect the way in which those tribes influenced Paul’s life.
• “Circumcised on the eighth day” Paul meets the first qualification better than any circumcised Gentile.
• “of the people of Israel” https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ro9.3 (Rom 9:3), https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ro9.4 (4); https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ro11.1 (11:1). This is not the typical word for “people” in Greek. γένος denotes “ancestral stock, common ancestry, nationality” (BDAG). Paul belonged to the nation of Israel, the chosen people of God. He possessed all...
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